Mihindukulasuriya Sunil Kaithan Fernando (; 22 September 1960 – 30 May 2017), popularly known as Sunil Mihindukula, was a Sri Lankan journalist, film critic and author. He was a permanent participant in various seminars, discussions, workshops island-wide on subjects such as cinema, literature, drama, and music.
Personal life
He was born on 22 September 1960 in Negombo, Sri Lanka as a member of a Catholic family. He completed his education at Maris Stella College, Negombo.
He was married to his longtime partner, Suraji Karunathilake, an information officer attached to the Information Department. The couple had four children.
He died on 30 May 2017 at the age of 56. His remains were laid at his residence at No. 950, Pethum Uyana, Rukmalgama. Cremation took place on 1 June 2017 at the Rukmalgama General Cemetery at 3 p.m.
Career
Since school times, he was a movie lover who was addicted to watching movies. After finishing school, he had the opportunity to associate with several media personalities such as Gunasiri Silva, Jayantha Chandrasiri and Prem Dissanayake. Then he started writing articles on the field of art for 'Navaliya' magazine edited by Jayantha Chandrasiri. He entered film journalism in 1978 with his first article to the ‘Sakura’ Magazine edited by Gunasiri Silva. He worked for some time with Gunasiri as a journalist for his publications and later contributed to 'Vichithra' publications compiled by Prem Dissanayake in 1987. He joined the Lankadeepa newspaper in 1979 as a feature writer. In the same year, he joined the political national newspaper 'Sathdina' where he discussed and wrote articles on literature. Meanwhile, Sunil also joined the film newspaper 'Piyakaru' after the invitation from its editor, Wimalendra Wathuregama. There Mihindukula made a concerted critique of the film trilogy.
He also wrote articles for magazines such as 'Sinesith' which were popular among texts at that time as a freelance journalist. In 1981, he reviewed Sugathapala Senarath Yapa's film Induta Mal Mitak for 'Lankadeepa', which was his first film review. In the same year, he joined as the staff writer for the editorial of 'Desathiya' published by the Government Information Department. In 1984, he wrote articles for the periodicals 'Kalpana' and 'Peramaga'.
In 1988, he joined the film newspaper 'Kala'. Feeling the need for a permanent job, he joined the 'Ravaya' newspaper in 1990, edited by Victor Ivan as the editor of the cinema page. In 1991, he held the post of Publication Assistant at the Social and Peace Center. He joined the Udaya Tennakoon's 'Thira Tharu' in 1990 and the film newspaper 'Rasa' edited by Ernest Waduge in 1994 and worked as a film writer. Sunil then joined Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (also called Lake House or ANCL) as a full-time journalist in the mid-90s and was appointed as a sub-editor of 'Dinamina' newspaper in 1995. Then he became the deputy editor of the 'Sarasaviya' newspaper. After a short stint, he became the chief editor of 'Sarasaviya' in 2009. During his tenure, he made several changes to the newspaper by creating supplements for areas such as literature, stage drama, and music.
While holding that position, in 2007, he joined Silumina as the editor of the 'Rasaduna' tabloid anthology published with the 'Silumina' weekend newspaper compiled by a veteran journalist Dharmasiri Gamage. His column 'Paryalokaya' written for the Silumina Literary Supplement was also talked about drama. For more than a decade, Sunil has been able to compile 'Rasaduna' with its unique content and corresponding style. At the same time, he became the co-editor of 'Silumina'. At the invitation of 'Sarasaviya' editor Aruna Gunaratne, He started writing a series of articles entitled 'Dramatists and Their Creations' in mid-2016. He worked at Lake House until his retirement in 2016.